A father’s attempt to recover a car he claimed to have given his daughter for personal use took an unexpected turn in an Abu Dhabi courtroom, where a decisive oath ultimately brought the family dispute to an end.
The father had approached the Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Cases Court seeking to compel his daughter either to transfer the vehicle into her name or return it to him. His complaint centred on a seemingly straightforward problem: although he had handed over the car for her use, its ownership remained registered in his name, while traffic violations accumulated against the vehicle.
According to the father, repeated requests for his daughter to complete the ownership transfer had produced no result. He maintained that she continued to use the vehicle without taking responsibility for formally registering it in her name. The situation had also left him facing the consequences of traffic violations committed while the car was allegedly being driven by his daughter.
What began as a disagreement over vehicle ownership eventually became a legal contest over whether the daughter had received the car at all.
A Car, Unpaid Fines and a Court Case
In his claim, the father asked the court to order his daughter to complete the necessary ownership transfer formalities before the Traffic and Licensing Department. If she declined, he wanted her to return the vehicle.
He valued the car at Dh10,000 and said that traffic fines amounting to Dh500 had accumulated during its use. He also sought to preserve his right to pursue a separate claim for any additional traffic fines, fees or financial penalties arising from the vehicle's use from the date his daughter was formally served with the statement of claim.
The father further requested that his daughter bear the legal expenses and attorney's fees, and that the judgment be made immediately enforceable.
However, the case faced a significant difficulty. The court file contained no documentary evidence establishing that the daughter had received the vehicle or that it was in her possession.
Rather than allowing the case to rest on competing assertions, the father asked the court to administer what is known in UAE legal proceedings as the decisive oath, or Al Yamin Al Hasimah. This is a legal mechanism through which a party may be required to swear to a disputed fact when the available evidence is insufficient to establish it.
The Oath That Changed the Course of the Dispute
The court accepted the father's request and set out the precise wording of the oath that his daughter was required to take.
She was asked to swear by Almighty God that she had not received the vehicle from her father and that it was not in her possession.
The court then scheduled a hearing to notify her of the wording and require her personal appearance. The father's representative attended the hearing, as did the daughter.
When asked whether she was prepared to take the oath, she agreed. After the court explained its contents and ensured that she understood what she was being asked to swear, she took the oath in the prescribed form. Her decision proved decisive.
By swearing that she had neither received the vehicle nor possessed it, the daughter directly denied the central factual assertion on which her father's lawsuit depended. The court subsequently treated the oath as having resolved the disputed issue, leaving no basis to grant the relief sought by the father.
Why the Court Dismissed the Claim
In explaining its decision, the court referred to the established legal principle that the burden of proving a claim rests with the party bringing it, while the opposing party is entitled to refute the allegations.
In this case, the father wanted the court to establish that his daughter had received the vehicle and was responsible for completing the ownership transfer or returning it. However, the absence of supporting evidence meant that he could not establish the claim through the documents available in the case file. The decisive oath became the means of resolving that evidential gap.
The court observed that taking or refusing a decisive oath carries legal consequences because it determines the disputed fact to which the oath relates. Once the daughter took the oath in the form prescribed by the court, the dispute concerning whether she had received or possessed the vehicle was settled for the purposes of the proceedings.
On that basis, the court applied the legal consequences of the oath and dismissed the father's lawsuit.
A Reminder About the Importance of Evidence
The case highlights how a relatively small financial disagreement can develop into a formal legal dispute when vehicle ownership, responsibility for traffic violations and the parties' understanding of an arrangement are not clearly documented.
For vehicle owners, allowing another person to use a car while keeping it registered in their own name can create practical and financial complications, particularly when traffic violations or other liabilities arise. Clear written arrangements and timely completion of ownership formalities can help prevent such disagreements.
The ruling also illustrates the significance of the decisive oath in UAE civil proceedings. Where a party cannot establish a disputed claim through available evidence, the oath may become central to the court's determination. It is not merely a formality: taking or refusing it can have a direct bearing on the outcome of a case.
In this instance, the dispute was not decided by the value of the car or the amount of the outstanding fines. Instead, it turned on a single question: had the daughter received and possessed the vehicle?
Her answer, delivered under oath in court, brought the father's attempt to recover the car through this lawsuit to an end.
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